Corporations, our Psychopathic Citizens

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Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by an abnormal lack of empathy combined with strongly amoral conduct, masked by an ability to appear outwardly normal. In the US, corporations, limited liability corporations, and other types of a business have a clear common goal, to make a profit. That is their primary, and in many cases their sole purpose. While corporations have been assigned many of the rights given to US citizens, such as first and fourteenth amendment rights, they are certainly lacking in empathy and I think it’s fair to say that many corporations act amorally.
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Zappos: Happy People, Delivering Happiness and Shoes.

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Tony Sheih, CEO of Zappos has just written his first book,’Delivering Happiness, a Path to Profits, Passion and Happiness.’ It chronicles Tony’s life, from childhood entrepreneurial efforts, to college and his time at LinkExchange. In some ways it reads like Ricardo Semler’s’Maverick, The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace,‘“Both books talk about lessons learned, mistakes made and happy coincidences that lead them to success.
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Uncle Sam Goes ROWE!

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The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is launching a Results Only Work Environment pilot program for 400 of its workers. Currently there is only one government entity running under ROWE: Hennepin County, Minnesota. Imagine letting government workers work when they want, how they want and with whom they want? What’s a ROWE you ask? From the book, ‘Why Work Sucks And How To Fix It.’ 13 Guideposts of a ROWE:
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Are you a stone cutter or do you build cathedrals?

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Ricardo Semler took his company SEMCO from a 4 million dollar a year venture with one division to 212 million a year with 15 divisions. This is from 1982 to 2003, I couldn’t find any newer numbers, but at that time his staff was aiming for 1 billion dollars by 2008. Sales have an average growth of 24% a year and SEMCO has less than 1% turnover. Beat that Wall Street! Ricardo has some very unconventional ideas about how to run a company.
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Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose, Oh My!

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Dan Pink’s new book, Drive brings together 50 years of research, and 25 years of practical experience from companies that have been using these ideas successfully and profitably. He says that economists and psychologists agree: carrots and sticks are only good for a very narrow band of tasks, ones that don’t require creativity. As soon as a creative task is tied to a reward or punishment, it will most likely have a long term negative effect on that task. These ideas are not new to the world, but it’s the first time anyone has brought them all together in one place and made them easy to understand.
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